Head of Maritime Resilience & Skills

Are you a self-starter who is comfortable with ambiguity?
Can you lead a team through a response crisis while ensuring their welfare?
Would you like to the opportunity to work across a broad range of crucial maritime issues working in partnership with the sector, and across Government, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, General Lighthouse Authorities and Marine Accident Investigation Branch?
If so, then we would love for you to apply!, + Be an active member of the Maritime leadership team and contribute to making this an exciting, supportive and inclusive place to work.
+ Manage two Team Leaders with 2nd line management for a wider team.
+ Provide the skills, experience, capability, and capacity to support the Deputy Director in setting the strategic direction and the prioritisation of workstreams across the Division to ensure it aligns with the priorities of the Maritime Minister, and the Government’s missions.
+ Work across DfT, other government departments and maritime stakeholders to develop knowledge and understanding of the opportunities and needs of the maritime sector.
+ Demonstrate and deliver leadership for operational activities across the maritime directorate, standing up a maritime resilience hub in times of national crisis and champion key resilience projects to deliver the protection of the UK’s ports and maritime critical national infrastructure.
+ You will also oversee the Maritime Resilience Out-of-hours team, a group of volunteers providing round-the-clock cover to respond to maritime incidents.
+ On Skills, you will work with the sector – including the Maritime Skills Commission – and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to develop plans and strategies to ensure the UK maritime sector has the workforce to respond to current and future challenges – including green infrastructure.
For an in-depth insight into the role please refer to the Role Profile.
Find out more about the policy profession, We recognise the challenges that people with protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.
A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business, or carry out detached duty in another DfT workplace, will also count towards this level of attendance.
Occasional travel to other DfT offices will be required.
You may also be required to work out of hours.

Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Seeing the Big Picture
+ Making Effective Decisions
+ Leadership
+ Delivering at Pace
+ Working Together, + Building strong and positive relationships with senior colleagues and industry stakeholders at all levels, across departmental boundaries often with conflicting demands.
+ Demonstrating leadership to motivate the team to ensure it meets its goals, whilst taking into account individual needs.
+ Using the best available evidence to take decisions in a timely fashion.
+ Working at pace, often in ambiguous circumstances, to deliver crucial operational response and advice to Senior Officials and or Ministers.
Your personal statement will be limited to a maximum of 1000 words.
The sift is due to take place from w/c 11th November.
Interviews/assessments are likely to be held w/c 25th November.
We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.
The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment will include:
+ An interview and a presentation.
This interview will be conducted online via Teams. Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.
You’re encouraged to become familiar with the role profile, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within.
The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.
For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website.
Reasonable Adjustments
As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes., A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
+ UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

To succeed in this role, you need excellent drafting skills and the ability to distil information from various sources for senior officials. You excel in stakeholder engagement and can work collaboratively across government to resolve crises. You remain calm and effective during responses to unexpected events and lead your team through ambiguity.
You exhibit strong leadership, prioritising your team's well-being while delivering key tasks. You are confident and articulate, especially when communicating with senior officials on short notice.

The UK’s maritime and marine sectors are key to Britain’s economy, supplying at least £14 billion gross value added (GVA) and directly supporting 168,000 jobs. This puts our sector on the same scale as other high value industries like pharmaceutical manufacturing, aerospace, and the road freight industry.
The UK has a dynamic maritime industry with a highly privatised and liberalised ports sector and world-leading clusters of maritime professional services (insurance, ship brokering, legal services, etc). The global shipping sector carries over 80% of world trade, the volume of which is expected to double by 2030. The UK is therefore ideally positioned to exploit this and drive growth in the maritime sector.
The Maritime People & Safety Division is the central hub within DfT Maritime Directorate for all people-focused work-streams, while working with other policy areas to share operational experience, capability, and capacity.
People & Safety delivers essential core government work on: maritime resilience – both planned and reactive; enhancing recruitment and retention, skills, training and diversity in the sector; seafarer’s welfare and legislation; accessibility / passenger rights; and vital work to support the safety of navigation and maritime workers across the sector.

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance.
Find out more about what it's like working at the Department for Transport